Coupeville Sports

The Anacortes Sea Hawks Midget football squad gets its first taste of Friday Night Lights. (Pat Kelley photos)

Future Wolf star Sage Downes prepares for the play.

The little guys put on a show while the big guys took a break.

The Anacortes Sea Hawks Midget football squad, which includes three players from Coupeville Elementary (Jake Mitten, Matthew Kelley and Sage Downes), got a chance to show off its stuff during halftime of an Anacortes High School game Friday night.

While some of the gridiron giants-in-training admitted to being a bit intimidated by the crowd noise and lights, they put on a successful show.

First-year player Nate Kimball capped the halftime show by busting a 35-yard run to the end zone.

Negotiations to move his family to Coupeville begin today…

The next day the Sea Hawks were tripped up by a defensive letdown on fourth-and-14 and fell 8-6 to Stanwood Black in a low-scoring affair. The loss dropped Anacortes to 3-2 on the season.

Kelley continued his strong season, hauling in three of quarterback Cameron Berow’s four completed passes, while Downes snatched the other one.

The Sea Hawks return to action Saturday, Oct. 5 with a game against Mount Vernon.

Read Full Post »

Josh Bayne is here to bring the pain. (John Fisken photo)

Let’s say you had to work last night and couldn’t travel down to Everson.

You would have missed a top-notch high school football game, one in which Coupeville High School made several heroic goal line stops and batted away a Hail Mary pass at the end to escape out of town with a thrilling 20-12 win.

If, like me, you were knee deep in dirty dishes, you wouldn’t have seen Jake Tumblin rumble for 127 yards and then stop a two-point conversion on defense by sacking the Nooksack quarterback. Or watched Josh Bayne throw down an all-around impressive game, lighting up people on both sides of the ball.

But, listen to Wolf stat man Chris Tumblin for a second or two, and you can practically see the knee-buckling action play out in front of you.

The best quote of the year (so far), in which Tumblin describes Bayne unloading on a Pioneer receiver:

“Josh had one tackle on a receiver, folded him in half like a cheap hooker who was punched in the gut by her pimp. He had to sit out for awhile and wait for his liver to start working again.”

Ow.

Bayne had six tackles and made off with an interception, while Wade Schaef also made off with a pick.

Lathom Kelley paced the Wolves with 10 tackles and four assists, while Brett Arnold (9/2), Tumblin (8/5), Nick Streubel (5/1), Jared Dickson (4/3) and Matthew Hampton (3 tackles) all chipped in.

Hampton and Dickson recovered fumbles, while Streubel, who was triple-teamed the entire night, threw enough bodies around to get two sacks and have a third tackle behind the line for a loss.

Read Full Post »

Jared Dickson, one of the unsung stars of the CHS defense. (John Fisken photo)

It was a long trip, but no one was complaining.

The Coupeville High School football squad didn’t return to The Rock until 1 AM Saturday morning (with a pride run set for 8 AM), but after drilling Nooksack Valley 20-12 in a non-conference game Friday night, the jaunt to Everson was hardly a concern.

Now 2-2 on the season, the Wolves will get some rest time anyway, as they head into a bye week which should allow for a lot of their aches and pains to key players to finish healing. Coupeville kicks off a four-game stretch run of Cascade Conference games Friday, Oct. 11 at Granite Falls.

Its playoff hopes hinge on two factors, finishing .500 or better and being one of the top two of the three 1A schools in the conference.

The other two teams, King’s and South Whidbey, faced off Friday, with the Knights taking a 35-14 win over their Langley hosts.

Way down the road, Coupeville was using a bruising, sometimes electrifying running game to bust open its game. Then it turned to its lights-out defense, headed up by rampaging force of nature Nick Streubel, to seal the deal.

Nooksack Valley had the ball in its hands for one final Hail Mary play at the buzzer, but Coupeville refused to bend.

“Another stellar defensive performance,” Wolf coach Tony Maggio said. “I think we had two picks and at least two to three fumble recoveries. Great game to be part of!”

When they had the ball, Coupeville controlled the clock and the game, battering away for more than 200 yards on the ground.

Senior Jake Tumblin had his second straight big game after coming back from injury, busting off two big runs and compiling a sweet 127 yards on just 13 carries.

His touchdown on a 39-yard scamper put the game on ice, while Josh Bayne, bumped over to quarterback from wing while Gunnar Langvold rehabs a hurt knee, bulled into the end zone twice.

Bayne hit pay dirt on short runs of three and one yards, with both scores punctuated by extra points from the foot of Joel Walstad.

It was a team-wide rushing effort, as battering rams Brett Arnold and Lathom Kelley churned for key yardage, with Kelley nabbing some huge first downs for his team.

Read Full Post »